Mother and Child

Mother and Child, Isabelle Albuquerque's first solo exhibition with the gallery, presents the inaugural work in her latest series, the Meadow. This stainless steel sculpture depicts a hybrid human-orchid figure with an intricate root system, exploring themes of generational knowledge, symbiosis, and the exchange between generations. Originally conceived in dialogue with Louise Bourgeois, the work re-contextualizes the mother and child theme through organic forms that blur the lines between human and non-human, organic and artificial, and reality and science fiction. Albuquerque was particularly interested in microchimerism and women as chimeras holding genetic material from both parents and children.

Albuquerque treats stainless steel to mimic the luminosity of glazed ceramic while retaining its industrial strength. For its presentation at Pièce Unique, the sculpture emerges from a mound of fresh earth, bridging the rendered and natural worlds. A single pearl blossoming from each orchid further deepens these metamorphic forms, acting as potent signifiers of desire and enacting an allegorical process of exchange, regeneration, and renewal across species and time.